HEAT WAVES. manifest

chapter nine: connecting flights

┊┊┊┊ ➶ CASSIE 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

APRIL 7TH, 2013

Cassie looked through the window, her mascara, which she had spent five minutes getting perfect in the morning had run down her face. Streaks of mascara stained her face, revealing to the world that she had been crying for the last hour.

Cassie grabbed her sleeve and rubbed her face, hopelessly she tried to remove the stains. "Do you need wipes?" Cassie's mother asked as she held out a packet of face wipes, Cassie smiled half-heartedly as she grabbed the wipes.

"Thanks."

"We're here."

Steve turned the car off as he looked at Cassie, "I know we all are worried about Cal and your siblings but we need to keep it together. Olive and Grace are going to need us to be strong."

The blonde-haired girl wiped her face with the wipes before she nodded, "No more crying, got it."

Karen gasped, she placed a hand over her mouth trying to prevent her sobs. Steve hugged his wife, "Everything will be okay," Steve told them, although he sounded just as unsure as Cassie's thoughts.

The airport was packed with people running around and some sleeping in the waiting chairs. She looked around for her family when a woman yelling caught her attention, "What do you mean the plane is missing?!"

Karen and Steve looked at each other, realising the voice was coming from their daughter-in-law, they followed Grace's voice until they saw the ticket desk and a group of people huddling around it. "We're doing all that we can at the moment," a man told the group of people.

"What are you doing? Who's looking for my family?!" Grace yelled at the man, Grace was hugging her mother's side as she watched her yell at the airport worker:

"Ma'ma you need to calm down

"The hell I do, my family is on that plane. My son, he's 10, sick! My husband and his sister, there is no way I can calm down when you tell me you lost my family!"

"Olive shouldn't be watching this," a voice said as Cassie recognised a few familiar faces in the crowd, Michaela's boyfriend Jared and her best friend Dolores.

"I got it," Cassie said as she stepped in front of Dolores, the older girl surprised by Cassie's presence, the last time they had seen each other Cassie was leaving for college. Cassie walked up to Olive, placing a hand softly on her shoulder, "Ollie, I'm feeling a bit hungry, would you mind showing me where the vending machines are?"

The ten-year-old looked at her aunt, her eyes widened, "Aunt Cass?" Cassie's heart broke as Olive stared at Cassie as if she were a stranger, somebody she sees twice a year like a dentist. Olive ran into Cassie, wrapping her small arms around her, "I missed you."

"I know, I'm sorry," Cassie ran a hand through Olive's curls, her braids were messy and strands of her hair were falling in her face.

The child grabbed Cassie's hand, "The vending machine is over here."

When they got to the vending machine Cassie looked inside her bag, shit, she had no change. "I want the Reese's," Olive pointed at the orange wrapped, Cassie bit her lip.

She looked at her niece, the girl was biting the sleeve of her rainbow shirt as she impatiently waited for the chocolate bar. On the other side of the room, Grace yelled at the Airport worker, demanding to find out where their family was. "I have a secret, Ol. Do you wanna see it?"

Olive nodded keenly.

"Okay..." Cassie looked around, double-checking no security guards are workers were around, once she was in the clear Cassie shook the machine and the chocolates started to wobble. Olive gasped as Cassie continued to do it until a Milky Way fell off the shelf. "There you go, it's not a Reese's but it's still chocolate."